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the baby miracle

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

My last little Christmas miracle to share this season is brief, because most of her story and our part of it isn’t ours to share right now. But the tiny baby who we brought home from her little corner of the NICU when she was one day shy of two months old continues to surprise and amaze us every day. She has the sweetest, most laidback disposition, but make no mistake, she is a fighter. Surviving an emergency delivery at 30 weeks, arriving into this world at less than three pounds, then sailing along to become this fourteen pound, medically healthy, developmentally maturing beautiful seven and half month old baby – that’s the work of a warrior.

‘Though she be but little, she is fierce.’ – Shakespeare

We get to parent two children who did not have a good start to life. We know what it’s like when you’ve missed out on months and years of healthy attachment and normal brain development. We know first-hand what happens to a child down the road when they haven’t known the nurturing love of a family. We have this tragic knowledge now built into our family’s DNA, and thus the whole family knows this thing we’re doing for one precious baby is more important than most people realize.

When she sits on our laps on the loveseat under our enraptured gazes and encouraging smiles and looks from mama to papa and back again, she knows she is loved and adored. She trusts that everything we do is for her best interests. She feels safe and secure. Given that she’s in foster care for a reason, it’s not a huge stretch or a violation of anyone’s privacy to say that she would not have received this if she had gone home right away with her mom. No matter what happens in her future, this knowledge will be permanently built into her brain development. She will always know what it feels like to be part of a family with two parents and multiple siblings who would do anything for her. We don’t know what her story holds; we only know that God put her in our family for a reason. The fact that she survived with the deck stacked so against her to end up here, right now, healthy and loved: that’s not chance. That’s a miracle.